AMSAT NEWS SERVICE
ANS-134
ANS is a free, weekly, news and information service of AMSAT North America, The
Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation. ANS reports on the activities of a
worldwide group of Amateur Radio operators who share an active interest in
designing, building, launching and communicating through analog and digital
Amateur Radio satellites.
Please send any amateur satellite news or reports to:
ans-editor at amsat.org
**********************************************************************
* Volunteers are needed to help at the AMSAT booth at Dayton. Gould *
* WA4SXM, is looking for volunteers to help man the AMSAT booth dur- *
* ing the 2012 Hamvention. People are needed all 3 days for 2 hour *
* shifts. Please send the days and times you are available to help *
* as well as how many shifts you are willing to work via e-mail to *
* wa4sxm at amsat.org. *
* Monitor http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/hamvention/2012/Dayton.php *
* for the latest AMSAT at Dayton news and developments *
**********************************************************************
In this edition:
* 14 May Reservation Deadline for AMSAT/TAPR Banquet at Dayton
* AMSAT Theme at Dayton 2012: Running with Fox
* TAPR Forum at Dayton Hamvention
* Vietnam F-1 Cubesat Team Completed Successful Communication Test
* 15 May Deadline to Apply for ARRL TI-2 Space in the Classroom Institute
* NASA TV to Broadcast Three Hams Launch From Baikonur
* Satellite Shorts From All Over
* ARISS Status - 7 May 2012
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-134.01
ANS-120 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 134.01
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
May 13, 2012
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-134.01
14 May Reservation Deadline for AMSAT/TAPR Banquet at Dayton
The sixth annual joint AMSAT/TAPR Banquet will be held Friday evening, May 18,
2012 during the Dayton Hamvention.
The Banquet will be at the:
Kohler Presidential Banquet Center
4572 Presidential Way
Kettering, OH 45429
(just south of Dayton).
Reservations are required and must be made by Monday, 14 May 2012 . Seating is
limited, so make your reservations early.
The price for the Banquet is $30 per person. Reserved tickets may be picked up
at the AMSAT booth at Hamvention on Friday, or at the door.
You may make reservations for the 2012 AMSAT/TAPR Banquet online in the AMSAT
Store. AMSAT Presidents Club Gold members should let Martha know if they are
planning to attend the banquet. Reserved tickets can be picked up at the AMSAT
booth on Friday or at the door to the Banquet.
For additional information contact Martha at the AMSAT office
(martha at amsat.org).
Banquet Schedule
----------------
+ 6:30 PM: Doors open and Cash bar is available with Beer, Wine,
Liquor and soft drinks.
+ 7:15 PM: Buffet Dinner service begins. The Center has a justly
deserved reputation for good food and service.
+ 8:15 PM: Presentation by Howard Long, G6LVB
Howard will be talking about his FUNcube Dongle, the
64 - 1700 MHz Software Defined Receiver. This innovative
USB device is the size of a thumbdrive and has an SMA
antenna socket. Multiple SDR control and display soft-
ware programs can be used with the FUNcube Dongle.
[ANS thanks Gould Smith, WA4SXM for the above information]
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AMSAT Theme at Dayton 2012: Running with Fox
The 2012 Dayton Hamvention will be held this year on 18 - 20 May 2012.
As has been the case for the many years Hamvention will be at the Hara
Arena Complex on the north side of Dayton. AMSAT will occupy the same
booths (444-449) in Ball Arena, right across from the ARRL area and
just inside the door from the Satellite Demonstration area.
The AMSAT theme for 2012 is "Running with Fox". We will have multiple
exhibits of the new AMSAT satellite on display.
Visit AMSAT's Dayton Hamvention page for all details on activities:
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/hamvention/2012/Dayton.php
Some of the activities will include:
+ Life size Fox models will be on display as well as diagrams of
the modules inside the 10cm square satellite.
+ Operational prototype of ARISSat-1 on display.
+ AMSAT Thursday Night Get-together at the Tickets Pub & Eatery.
+ The sixth annual AMSAT/TAPR Banquet will be Friday night May 18
at the Kohler Banquet Center. The price for the Banquet is $30.
Seating is limited and reservations are required. Follow the
links on AMSAT's Dayton page.
+ The AMSAT Forum will be on Saturday May 19.
AMSAT/TAPR Friday Night Banquet
-------------------------------
AMSAT/TAPR Banquet on Friday night, May 18 is one of the main AMSAT
activities during the 2012 Hamvention at Dayton.
AMSAT is pleased to announce that Howard Long, G6LVB will be the fea-
tured speaker for the evening event. Howard will be talking about his
FUNcube Dongle, the 64 - 1700 MHz Software Defined Receiver. This
innovative USB device is the size of a thumbdrive and has an SMA ant-
enna socket. Multiple SDR control and display software programs can
be used with the FUNcube Dongle.
Banquet tickets will not be sold at the AMSAT booth during the Ham-
vention so reservations must be made through the AMSAT Store:
http://www.amsat-na.com/store/item.php?id=100158
Tickets are $30 apiece.
ARISS Mentor Introduction at Dayton 2012
----------------------------------------
AMSAT and ARRL are teaming up during the 2012 Hamvention to recruit
new ARISS (Amateur Radio on the International Space Station) Techni-
cal Mentors and Ground Station Operators.
Friday and Saturday (May 18 & 19) at 4pm in the ARRL stage area
AMSAT Vice President for Educational Relations Mark Hammond N8MH
will explain the need for additional ARISS Technical Mentors and
Ground Station Operators and the requirements and responsibilities
needed to help provide a reliable conversation between astronauts
and selected schools or groups.
Technical Mentors serve as an advising and coordinating liaison be-
tween NASA, the school or group making the ARISS contact, and the
Ground Station Operators, who set up the satellite station at the
contact location. We encourage anyone interested in helping make
future school contacts with the ISS successful to please attend.
AMSAT to Facilitate Student Satellite Contacts
----------------------------------------------
AMSAT is encouraging all students attending the 2012 Dayton Hamvention
to come by the Satellite Demonstration Area just outside of the Ball
Area entrance and make a contact using the amateur satellites. There
will be AMSAT volunteers there to explain how to make the contacts and
during actual satellite passes will try to get as many students as pos-
sible to complete actual contacts. There are lists of satellite pass
times in the satellite demonstration area and at the AMSAT booth.
[ANS thanks Gould Smith, WA4SXM for the above information]
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TAPR Forum at Dayton Hamvention
TAPR will be found in booths 455-459 in the Ball Arena of the Hara
Arena at the Dayton Hamvention. They will be near AMSAT who will be
found in booths 444-449 in the Ball Arena.
TAPR will feature several SDR projects which are gaining interest
quickly in the amateur radio community. Details of TAPR projects and
the group's plans for Dayton can be found in the PSR Digital Journal.
The Spring 2012 edition is now available for download from:
http://www.tapr.org/psr/psr118.pdf
The TAPR Forum gets underway in Room 1 of the Hara Arena at 9:15AM
on Friday and runs until 11:15 AM. The TAPR Forum speakers include:
+ Introduction and TAPR Update by Steve Bible, N7HPR
+ Beyond openHPSDR: Hermes and the Future by Scotty Cowling, WA2DFI.
Hermes is the latest addition to the openHPSDR stable of boards.
+ Embedded DSP for PCless SDR" by Lyle Johnson, KK7P. Self contained
radios have been standard since the mid-1920s. Why should SDRs be
different? For many applications especially portable operation not
having to lug a PC around, or try and read its screen in bright am-
bient light, or depend on a laptop's battery charge level can be
decided benefits. Advances in DSP technology allow self contained,
highly portable SDRs that provide many hours of operation on small,
internal battery packs.
+ Time and Frequency Update by John Ackermann, N8UR. After some
down time, the TAPR T&F project list is moving forward. This
presentation will discuss the new TADD2 Mini frequency divider
that is now shipping, and will give a glimpse of new products in
the pipeline.
+ CODEC 2 by David Rowe, VK5DGR. Codec2 is an open source low bit
rate speech codec designed for communications quality speech at
2400bit/s and below. Applications include low bandwidth HF/VHF
digital radio and VOIP trunking. Codec 2operating at 2000 bit/s
can send 32 phone calls using the bandwidth required for one 64
kbit/s uncompressed phone call. It fills a gap in open source,
free as in speech voice codecs beneath 5000 bit/s and is released
under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL).
[ANS thanks TAPR President Steven Bible, N7HPR and Stan Horzepa,
WA1LOU for the above information]
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Vietnam F-1 Cubesat Team Completed Successful Communication Test
Hanoi based FSpace team completed another important milestone in
preparation for the July 18 launch when they successfully performed
a long range communication test of F-1 CubeSat with a ground station
at a distance of 50km. The team carried the little satellite to top
of Tam Dao mountain in Vietnam (about 1300m high). A communication
link of 50km with the ground station at the FPT building in Hanoi
was established. Despite of heavy fog and high humidity (which was
very bad for radio communication) the ground station successfully
sent uplink commands to F-1 and the satellite responded correctly,
reporting its status and taking some photos.
F-1 is one of five CubeSat teams preparing for a launch to the Inter-
national Space Station in the July 18-21, 2012 time frame. These Cube-
Sats will be launched from Tanegashima, Japan aboard the JAXA HTV-3
ISS resupply mission. The CubeSats will be loaded into the J-SSOD
deployer on the Japanese Experiment Module, also known as Kibo. They
will be deployed with the Kibo robotic arm planned for September, 2012
timeframe.
Other cubesats on this flight include:
+ HTV 3 (Kounotori 3)
+ Raiko
+ We Wish
+ FITSat 1
+ TechEdSat
The F-1 Cubesat team posted photos at: http://fspace.edu.vn/?p=557.
[ANS thanks the F-1 Cubesat Team for the above information]
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15 May Deadline to Apply for ARRL TI-2 Space in the Classroom Institute
The ARRL Education & Technology Program (ETP) is offering an advanc-
ed Teachers Institute (TI-2) session that focuses on space in the
classroom. This four-day professional development workshop is spon-
sored by the Dayton Amateur Radio Association and is held in their
location in Dayton, Ohio (July 9-12).
The TI-2 Space curriculum focuses on the nuts and bolts of setting
up and operating a satellite ground station. This serves as excellent
preparation for a scheduled contact with the ISS through the Amateur
Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program. But it also
provides instruction for continued use of satellites and other man
made space assets to explore naturally generated signals, space and
a variety of topics.
Thanks to generous assistance from Yaesu USA and Ham Radio Outlet,
participants will receive a full ground station that is configured
for satellite communications, as well as training on how to set it
up and use it to make Amateur Radio contacts and download telemetry
data.
To be considered for a seat in TI-2 Space, participants must possess
at least a Technician class license at the time off application. ARRL
membership is required. Priority for attending the TI-2 Space session
will be given to teachers who have developed an educational proposal
accepted for participation in the ARISS Program.
This session has a class limit of 8 participants, so apply early! The
deadline for the TI-2 Space in the Classroom sessions of the Teachers
Institute is May 15. This deadline is this week ... hurry!
Full details are posted on the ARRL web at:
http://www.arrl.org/ti-2-space-in-the-classroom
[ANS thanks the ARRL for the above information]
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NASA TV to Broadcast Three Hams Launch From Baikonur
The next mission to the International Space Station will have three
crew members who are licensed amateur radio operators. The crew con-
sists of NASA Flight Engineer Joseph Acaba, KE5DAR, and two Russian
crewmates, Soyuz Commander Gennady Padalka, RN3DT, and Flight Engin-
eer Sergei Revin, RN3BS.
NASA will televise the launch and docking of the next mission to the
ISS, scheduled for May 14, with live NASA TV coverage of the Soyuz
TMA-04M spacecraft launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Coverage begins at 9 PM CDT on Monday, May 14 (0200 UTC May 15), with
the launch scheduled for 10:01 PM CDT (0301 UTC).
The trio will arrive at the station May 16, joining Expedition 31
Commander Oleg Kononenko, RN3DX, of the Russian Federal Space Agency,
Flight Engineer Don Pettit, KD5MDT, of NASA and Flight Engineer Andrei
Kuipers, PI9ISS, of the European Space Agency, who have been aboard
the ISS since December 2011. Padalka, Acaba and Revin will transition
to the Expedition 32 crew in July and return to Earth in mid-September.
NASA TV Schedule
----------------
+ Monday, May 14 - 9 PM CDT (0200 UTC May 15)
Soyuz TMA-04M launch coverage (launch scheduled at 10:01 PM [0301
UTC]), including video of the crew's pre-launch activities and
launch replays.
+ Tuesday, May 15 - 12 AM CDT (0500 UTC)
Video file of Soyuz TMA-04M pre-launch, launch video and post-launch
interviews.
+ Wednesday, May 16 - 11 PM CDT (0400 UTC)
Soyuz TMA-04M docking coverage (docking scheduled at 11:38 PM [0438
UTC]), followed by a post-docking news conference from Mission Control
in Korolev, Russia.
+ Thursday, May 17 - 2 AM CDT (0700 UTC)
Soyuz TMA-04M hatch opening and welcoming ceremony (hatch opening
scheduled at 2:20 AM [0720 UTC]).
4 AM CDT (0900 UTC) - Video file of Soyuz TMA-04M docking, hatch
opening and welcoming ceremony.
You can watch live online on the NASA TV Public and Media channels,
streamed live on the internet at http://www.nasa.gov/ntv or on your
television set if your local provider carries the NASA TV channel
in your area.
[ANS thanks the ARRL and NASA for the above information]
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Satellite Shorts From All Over
+ AMSAT-UK posted a video made by Alexandru Csete OZ9AEC demon-
strating the interference caused by FM emissions on the FO-29
linear transponder. Alexandru used the AMSAT-UK FUNcube Dongle
and Gqrx SDR software to receive and record the signal. The
video is posted at: http://www.uk.amsat.org/7260
+ Doug McArthur, VK3UM announced a software update to the VK3UM EMR
Calculator program. The EMR (Electro Magnetic Radiation) software
Version 7.00 has been revamped and enhanced for improved ease of
use. It includes many examples, references and a Help file. It co-
vers ARPNSA (Australian), FCC, and CEU Radio Frequency Emission
Standards. It may also be configured for any other requirement out-
side the above Standards i.e. Russian Federation. Doug has several
other programs such as his EME Calculator available for download
on his website at: http://www.vk3um.com/
+ Hams like science, so enjoy these scientific music videos in the
shack. The Symphony of Science is a musical project of John D
Boswell, designed to deliver scientific knowledge and philosophy
in musical form. See: http://symphonyofscience.com/
+ In his latest Science Off the Sphere video from the ISS, astronaut
Don Pettit, allows us to 'see' sound waves in space. Watch and
learn on-line at: http://www.physicscentral.com/explore/sots/
[ANS thanks everyone for the above information]
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ARISS Status - 7 May 2012
1. ARISS - Virginia Contact Successful
On Wednesday, May 2, the Mariners' Museum in Newport News, Virginia experienced
a successful Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact
with Don Pettit, KD5MDT via telebridge station IK1SLD in Italy. Groups in
Virginia, Louisiana, New York, and Michigan were video conferenced together for
the event. Approximately 350 students at the four locations got in seventeen
questions before ISS went over the horizon. The contact highlighted a
comprehensive Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education
plan.
2. Ham Nation Features Flabob Contact
The ARISS contact with Astronaut Don Pettit and Flabob Airport Preparatory
Academy students in Jurupa Valley, California that occurred on April 19, 2012,
was featured on the May 1 episode (#46) of the Bob Heil & Gordon West "Ham
Nation" video podcast. The video is now available on TwiT TV and Flabob sites.
Ham Nation: http://twit.tv/hn
Flabob site: http://www.iss-flabob.com
3. Astronaut Training Status
An introductory/basic operations session is planned for Alexander Gerst, KF5ONO
on Wednesday, May 9. Gerst is scheduled to fly with Expedition 40 in May 2014.
[ANS thanks Carol, KB3LKI, for the above information]
/EX
In addition to regular membership, AMSAT offers membership in the
President's Club. Members of the President's Club, as sustaining
donors to AMSAT Project Funds, will be eligible to receive addi-
tional benefits. Application forms are available from the AMSAT
Office.
Primary and secondary school students are eligible for membership
at one-half the standard yearly rate. Post-secondary school students
enrolled in at least half time status shall be eligible for the stu-
dent rate for a maximum of 6 post-secondary years in this status.
Contact Martha at the AMSAT Office for additional student membership
information.
73,
This week's ANS Editor,
Lee McLamb, KU4OS
ku4os at amsat dot org